Getting Started with Cassiopeia

This document gives a brief overview of the most frequently used features of Cassiopeia. Successive tutorials will go into further detail (links at the bottom of this page). If you have not yet installed Cassiopeia you may want to read Installation and Setup first.

Logging into a local database

Creating Documents

Sections and Subsections

Inserting Equations

Logging into the Advanced Science Cloud

Logging into a local database

This section explains how to connect to the local database that was automatically setup as part of the installation procedure (see Installation and Setup). The connect parameters on the Connection pane of the Cassiopeia preferences panel should look as follows (default values).

Choose Database - Log On from the menu.

Make sure the Cloud control in the lower left corner of the connect panel is unchecked. The fields should then be preset with the connect parameters defined on the Connection panel of the Cassiopeia preferences panel. Note, the panel asks for a database account, not your system account. So do not enter the username and password you use to log into Mac OS X but a valid database account.

Unless additional user accounts have already been created in the local database or a password for the default database user ROOT has been set use ROOT for the User name: and leave both password fields blank. Click on OK.

Cassiopeia can be made to automatically login with a default account whenever the application is started. This is explained in the Autologin section of the Central Database document (you might want to check this out later).

Creating Documents

After starting Cassiopeia.app the first step is to choose Database - Log On from the menu to log into the database as explained in the previous two sections. After a successful login the following object browser window appears.

A new document can be created by choosing Database - New Document from the menu (or simply pressing Command-N). A panel appears asking for the title of the document. Specify a title and click on OK. The document window appears and you can start entering content.

If you make up your mind and would like to rename your doument choose Database - Rename from the menu and specify a new title.

Please note the little black dot in the center of the red bullet in the window title(s) after modifying a document. This black dot indicates unsaved changes. Choose Database - Save from the menu or simply hit Command-s to save changes to the database. You should become used to hitting save fairly often when editing documents. If you have performed unwanted changes either use Command-z (undo) or hit Command-u to discard all changes and revert back to the latest saved state in the database.

Close your document and press Command-O or choose Database - Open Document from the menu.

Documents and books aren't autofetched when the document manager is opened. This makes sense since you might have hundreds of documents in the database (especially if sharing the database with colleagues in a multi user setup) and you are currently interested in a small subset or even a specific one only. The document we have created above has "first" in its title. Type "first" in the search field and press Enter. There it is again.

Should you ever want to fetch all documents you have access to simply click into the search field, leave it blank and press <Return> (make sure no category is selected, you can deselect with Command-Click). Doubleclick on the document listed in the tableview to reopen it, do some modifications, hit save and close it again. Suppose you expect to work fairly often with this document. It then makes sense to put a bookmark for this document on the object browser window. You can do so by Ctrl-dragging the document from the tableview to the object browser window.

When you let go the yellow ball over the blue object browser window a so called enterprise object - actually an alias for an object in the database - is created. A doubleclick on the alias opens the viewer for the object referenced by the alias, in this case the document window. Bookmarking allows fast access to frequently used documents and books. A document or book can also be bookmarked by opening it and then pressing Command-Shift-B.

Sections and Subsections

Publications usually have some inner structure of sections and subsections. You can create a section by choosing SDM - Create Section from the menu or simply hitting Command-Shift-S. A panel appears and asks for the title of the section. Type some title and hit Enter.

Note the black dot indicating unsaved changes. Don't forget to hit save from time to time. Now type a few words and hit Command-Shift-S again to create another section.

Now hit Command-Shift-G to open the table of contents drawer. You can doubleclick on any entry in this drawer to get to the corresponding section quickly.

You can also drag up and down sections in the drawer to change their location within the document or to make them a subsection of some other section.

Close the drawer by hitting Command-Shift-G again. Let's assume we make up our mind and would like the section Analysis be a subsection of Preface instead of a sibling. To accomplish this singleclick on Analysis in the document and choose SDM - Section Down in the menu or simply hit Command-Shift-D.

Note that Analysis appears in a smaller font now indicating it to be a subsection of Preface. Hit save and reopen the TOC drawer with Command-Shift-G. Note the small triangle to the left of Preface in the TOC drawer.

Click on it to expand, click once more to collapse again. Now hit Command-p to open the print document panel

and click on the brown wheel in the top right corner to generate LaTeX for your document. The generated LaTeX is shown in the textview below the option checkboxes. Cassiopeia compiles the LaTeX in the background and opens the resulting PDF in Preview.app.

Try out a few of the options on this panel. We will go into further detail with regard to LaTeX generation in a forthcoming tutorial. A detailed introduction into structuring documents, emphasing ranges of text, inserting figures, creating enumerations, etc. is given in Documents.

Inserting Equations

All symbols and parts are available via easy to remember key strokes or alternatively via a palette (choose Tools - Palette from the Cassiopeia menu) making the creation and modification of formulas as seamless as possible. Hit <Return> once or twice to place the cursor on an empty line. Then press Command-y to insert an equation and get into formula mode.

Note the small gray rectangle representing an empty equation. Also note that the formula is horizontally centered automatically. Do not insert TABs or spaces before creating an equation. Cassiopeia automatically takes care of the alignment. Also note that the blinking cursor is gone indicating that we are in formula mode now. Type (without the quotes and the commas) "y", "=", 3, x, +, Ctrl-r, x, <Return>.

Click into the equation and insert another term on the left side.

Press <Return> to leave formula mode and press Command-p to generate LaTeX and get an idea of the printed output.

A detailed introduction into the equation editor is given in Equation Editor.

Logging into the Advanced Science Cloud

If you have chosen a username and password while filling out the registration form on our website you should have received an email notification in the meanwhile stating that your cloud account was created. If you have no cloud account yet you may create one now or connect to the automatically installed local database instead (see first section of this document).

Once you have your cloud unsername and password handy start Cassiopeia.app and choose Database - Log On from the menu.

The following login panel appears.

Make sure the Cloud control in the lower left corner is checked. This presets the fields on the panel with the connect parameters for the cloud. Now enter your username and password into the User name: and User password: fields and click on OK.

Note: Cassiopeia can be made to automatically login with a default account whenever the application is started. This is explained in the Autologin section of the Central Database document (you might want to check this out later).

You are logged into the cloud now and may continue with Creating Documents (see above).

This quickstart tutorial could give a brief overview only. We recommend to read the following documents now: